The present invention relates to systems and methods for interactive television applications. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for retrieving non-on-demand media data and on-demand media data from separate data sources in an interactive television application system.
Cable, satellite, and broadcast television systems provide users with a large number of television channels. Users have traditionally consulted printed television program schedules to determine the programs being broadcast at a particular time. More recently, interactive electronic television program guides have been developed that allow television program information to be displayed on a user's television.
Interactive television program guides are typically implemented on television set-top boxes. Such program guides allow users to view television program listings in different display formats. For example, a user may instruct the program guide to display a grid of program listings organized in a channel-ordered and time-ordered array. Users may also search and sort program listings by theme (e.g., movies, sports, etc.) or by title (e.g., alphabetically). A user may obtain additional information for a particular program listing, and may purchase a program for viewing.
Some interactive program guide systems may provide listings for on-demand videos. In some systems, the on-demand video listings are provided from a data source that is separate from the source that provided listings and other information for non-on-demand media, such as television programs. A video-on-demand server may, for example, provide the listings for on-demand videos to the program guide in-band with or out-of-band from the program guide data or normal television programming. When video-on-demand listings are provided in band, the program guide must establish a connection with the video-on-demand server (if one is not established), and tune the user away from the television program the user is watching in order to retrieve listings. This causes the user to miss part of the programming that he or she is watching. When video-on-demand listings are provided out-of-band, the program guide must also establish a connection with the video-on-demand server (if one is not established), and retrieve the listings. In such approaches, low bandwidth connections may cause unacceptable delays in the display of the video-on-demand listings. In addition, some video-on-demand information, such as new release listings, is frequently accessed by many users throughout the network. Each user's equipment must establish a session with the server every time information is needed. This may cause huge peak resource demands on the distribution network.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide systems and methods for retrieving non-on-demand media data and on-demand media data from separate data sources in a way that reduces the undesirable consequences associated with current approaches such as, for example, the disruption of the user's viewing experience or delays in displaying application screens.